Afghan province sliding back towards Taliban control

The Afghanistan province where Australian troops were stationed for eight years and suffered most of their casualties is in danger of sliding back into Taliban control, Afghan sources and experts say.

Eighteen months after Australian Defence Force troops withdrew from their main base in Oruzgan province, a power vacuum left by the assassination of a Western-backed strongman has sparked an insurgency push that by some estimates has put half the province in Taliban hands.

Safety and security: The deterioration in Oruzgan province appears to put at risk gains made during the nearly eight years that the ADF were stationed there. Photo: Sergeant Neil Ruskin

Afghanistan's ambassador to Australia, Nasir Ahmad Andisha, confirmed there have been setbacks, saying: "It's unfortunately the case that the level of attacks, the intensity and the sophistication, is something we have not seen in the last four or five years."

He denied that insurgents were controlling entire districts but acknowledged "they are trying to show that they can take over some of the districts".

"There is a younger group and a more radical group who have disassociated themselves from the older leadership and are affiliated with ISIL," he said, referring to the Islamic State group.

The deterioration appears to put at risk gains made during the nearly eight years that the ADF was stationed in the province. Of the 41 Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, 31 died in Oruzgan province. Australia has spent more than $7.5 billion on the war in Afghanistan.

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The ADF still has about 400 troops in the country, mostly in the capital Kabul.

A source in Tarin Kot, the provincial capital where up to 1500 Australian troops were based for nearly eight years, told Fairfax Media it was widely believed that the Taliban had control of three of the province's six districts – Deh Rawood, Khas Uruzgan and Shahidi Hassas – outside the cities.

"The security situation is very bad … and it is definitely getting worse," said the 25-year-old local man who works with Western aid organisations.

"I have worked seven years for international organisations and I am not feeling safe."

Oruzgan has been without a police chief for more than two months since strongman Matiullah Khan was assassinated in a suicide bombing in Kabul.

Experts say Khan's death has triggered a power struggle which has opened up opportunities for the Taliban to make gains but has also created tribal chaos more widely.

William Maley, a professor at the Australian National University regarded as one of the world's foremost Afghanistan experts, said Australia had "put all its eggs in the Matiullah basket", relying too heavily on the powerful police chief to maintain stability.

Khan's acting replacement, Gulab Khan, was killed in a Taliban ambush on April 25. A new permanent police chief, Toryalai Abadyani, was finally appointed on Thursday.

An official source in Kabul told Fairfax Media that 54 Oruzgan security posts have fallen in recent days while four more were under Taliban siege. He said 19 police had been killed and three army soldiers wounded. A further 31 police and soldiers had disappeared but it was not clear whether they had defected to the Taliban or been killed.

However the official source in Kabul disputed that the Taliban controlled entire provinces, saying they controlled only some villages.

A former Oruzgan government spokesman, Mustafa Kazemi, said the Afghan forces were not being properly supplied.

"I was speaking to one senator from Oruzgan … he said that an outpost that has fallen to Taliban hands was not supplied food, water and ammunition for more than five days," he said.

A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Kevin Andrews said that the ADF had made "a substantial difference to the safety and security of Afghanistan".

"Any ongoing instability in Afghanistan is of serious concern," she said. But she added: "Ultimately, the security of Afghanistan remains the Afghan government's responsibility."